South Asia Economic Focus report

South Asia Economic Focus report

Date: April 14, 2015

GDP growth fiscal year international oil prices

World Bank released South Asia Economic Focus report

The World Bank recently released South Asia Economic Focus report which has projected the economic growth of South Asia for the year 2016 and 2017 i.e. It will increase from 7 percent in 2015 to 7.6 percent by 2017. Together with favorable food prices, cheaper oil has contributed to a rapid deceleration of inflation. South Asia went from having the highest inflation rate among developing regions to having the lowest in barely one year.

Indian Projection:-

In India, GDP growth is expected to accelerate to 7.5 per cent in fiscal year 2015/16. It could reach 8 per cent in FY 2017/18, on the back of significant acceleration of investment growth to 12 per cent during FY 2016-FY 2018, the bank said in its semi-annual report.

The report highlighted that India has already taken encouraging steps to decouple international oil prices from fiscal deficits and to introduce carbon taxation to address the negative externalities from the use of fossil fuels. The challenge will be to stay the course in the event of oil price hikes – something that may well happen in the medium term.